ode to coffee

I love my morning coffee. I love it more than I loved cigarettes when I was trying to quit so many years ago.
I spent years and years making coffee in an individual drip maker, y' know the ones that are plastic and you put it directly over your coffee cup and pour water in from the tea kettle? I loved it. There was something so satisfying about the whole beans being scooped into the coffee grinder and releasing that perfect coffee aroma as they are ground to a fine espresso grind. After setting up the plastic holder and brown paper cone filter over my chosen coffee cup of the day, I would lovingly empty the fresh coffee grinds into the cone and pour hot water over them, watching them bloom and bubble and release their oils creating a beautiful rainbow on top of the brewing mess. This step, my favorite because I know it is the final step in producing the elixir I crave, is repeated several times until the coffee cup is perfectly full. If the grind is right, my coffee will be a thick, black pool of invigoration waiting to be sweetened and lightened with cream and sugar.
When I moved in with Dan my morning coffee tradition was completely overhauled when all of a sudden we were making coffee for two. We decided to buy an electric coffee maker. It was here where things began to go down hill. It seemed like the electric coffee maker had a genuine dislike for me. Every time I tried to make coffee with it, following Dan's instructions to a T, it would produce disgusting brown water unfit for anyone to drink. After months and months of feeling rejected by the coffee maker, Dan discovered the root of my problem. I was grinding so fine that the water would seal the grounds together in a protected pocket, essentially only brewing a quarter of the grinds I put in the filter. It was a beautiful day when I ground the coffee beans to a coarse consistency only, and produced my beloved black sludge once again.
With that, I have swilled my last gulp and am off to work... Good day to all!